Imagination || L.H.

Chapter 6

He scans the water, realizing the same thing. "Shit," he murmurs, diving down in search of his friend. The rest of us quickly follow his lead. 

I open my eyes under the water, ignoring the way the salt burns my eyes, arms sweeping out in front of me to check that my eyes haven't missed anything. All I see is water, sand and seaweed. 

No sign of Luke.

I resurface for air before going back under. No no no. I lost someone once, and it nearly destroyed me. I'm not going to let that happen again. 

I run into Mikey swimming in circles, but neither of us stop to exchange more words than "See anything yet?" and "No."

Please let this all be a dream.

A triumphant shout rises up from Ash's direction, sounding over the cries of seagulls soaring overhead, joyous yelps from children and the roar of the surf crashing against the beach. 

"I found him!"

Calum reaches them first, supporting Luke's other side as he and Ashton work together to haul him to his feet. He blinks his blue eyes blearily, as if coming out of daze, swaying unsteadily. 

A long cut runs from his temple to the top of his cheekbone, pulsing crimson blood. Michael's expression is as serious as I've ever seen it as he approaches his friends, inspecting Luke's cut as the blood drips down the side of his face. 

I crash to their sides, walking solemnly behind Cal and Ash as they slowly lead Luke back to shore, their steps never faltering.

I rush ahead to grab one of the towels from the bag stowed next to the umbrella, pausing to slide the bag around my shoulder as well. 

I hope that it's only a little cut that will vanish within a week or two. Luke's life is hard enough at the moment without having to worry about an injury getting infected or needing stitches. 

I reach the boys as soon as the water hits ankle-height, stretching up onto my tiptoes to press the towel against the side of Luke's head.

"Hold that there," I tell them, stepping back as Ashton's hand replaces mine. 

I fish through the bag for something else that will help, but all I see is my phone. Looking back up at the three expectant boys wishing that I have something to help their friend, I shake my head. 

"I don't have anything else," I say apologetically. "If you think that it needs stitches or might get infected, we better take him somewhere. I'm not a nurse and I don't have anything else that we can do for him without getting professional help."

Ashton removes the towel for a second to assess the injury. 

"I don't know," he sighs. "I know head wounds bleed a lot, but what if it does get infected? What if he hit his head hard enough to do something other than draw blood?"

"Well, what if it's just a cut and we're just being paranoid?" Michael proposes, looking from Ashton to Calum to me.

"Are you saying we should do nothing?" Calum counters, his hand tightening on Luke's arm.

While they break off into a heated debate, I inspect Luke closely. 

He looks thousands of miles away, staring without really seeing. He's probably in shock. Maybe he did hit his head hard enough to do more than external damage. 

"Luke?" I say hesitantly. "Luke, can you hear me?"

The suggestions of what to do halt as the other boys turn their attention to my actions.